by Jade Parker
“Is your family Italian?” I asked before I bit into my sandwich.
“You bet. Small family though. There’s Mom and Pop. And my twin brothers. How about you?”
I almost choked on my sandwich. “How about me what?”
“How about your family? I met your brother last night. Is he it?”
“Yeah. Besides Mom and Dad.”
“Must be fun to work here.”
“You’d think.”
“It isn’t?”
I popped a chip into my mouth, offered him the opened bag. He broke down and took one.
“It’s not that it isn’t fun,” I told him, “but it’s not as much fun as visiting.”
But I didn’t really want to talk about me.
“So how will you do the light show?” I asked.
“Probably set things up on both sides of the pool. Use the park’s announcement system to play the music. I know firsthand that it works really well and can be heard all over the park.”
I groaned. “Look, I’m really sorry about that.”
He grinned. “I’m just teasing you. It made me feel important, hearing my name.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Seriously. My first thought was that one of my brothers had gotten into trouble, so I was glad it was nothing.”
“I’m not sure I’d classify it as nothing. We did clear the pool. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen you leave.”
“So you were watching for me?”
I was really saying more than I wanted to say. “Not really. Maybe that’s the reason I missed seeing you.”
He took another chip. “Maybe.”
“So why do you need the music to be heard all over the park?”
“Because people will be able to see some of the lights no matter where they are in the park. The best seats will be around here, of course. I think it’ll be cool.”
I thought it would be, too. I looked at my watch. I didn’t want Trent yelling at me again. I was running out of time.
“I’m going to have to go,” I said as I wadded up the empty chip sack.
“Already?”
“Yeah, we only get half an hour for lunch.”
I stood up and slung my tote bag over my shoulder. He stood up, too.
“Can I ask you a question?” I asked.
“Sure.”
“The Birks beneath the lounge chair yesterday — were they there when I sat down?”
“Probably.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Probably?”
“They weren’t mine.”
My jaw dropped. “What?”
“Hey.” He held up his hands. “In all fairness, I thought they were, but when I went to put them on, they were too big. I felt pretty stupid.”
I couldn’t help myself. I laughed. “I can’t believe you did that!” Or that he was so comfortable admitting it to me. Nothing seemed to phase him.
“Michael!”
I snapped my head around. The two boys I’d seen with Michael yesterday slammed into him, giggling and laughing as though they wanted to tackle him.
“No running,” I said, automatically shifting into lifeguard mode.
Michael laughed. Both boys stuck their tongues out at me. They looked alike. I’d seen twins before, of course, but it was still a little unsettling to see two boys who were a perfect match.
“Hey, Tony, Tommy,” Michael chastised. “She’s right, dudes, so don’t do that.”
Michael shifted his attention to me. “These are my brothers.”
“They look like you. Sorta.” They had the same dark hair and light silver eyes. “Not as much as they look like each other though.”
“What’s your name?” one of the boys asked.
“Caitlin.” I wanted to reach out and ruffle his hair. It was something I did when I babysat kids and thought they were cute.
The twins looked at each other and then each gave me a mischievous grin. They started singing in unison, “Michael and Caitlin sitting in a tree —”
I felt my cheeks grow warm.
“Hey, dudes,” Michael scolded, trying to put his hands over their mouths.
They roared out their laughter and ran off.
“No running!” I yelled after them.
Michael looked back at me. “Sorry ’bout that. Kids. What are you gonna do?”
“Yeah. Really. Listen, I’ve got to get back to work.”
“Sure. Thanks for helping me pick the place to set up.”
I scoffed. “I didn’t do anything.” I gave him a little wave. “See ya.”
I had all of two minutes to get my tote bag to my locker and get back to my station. I was going to be late. I thought about asking Whitney for a tardy slip, but that seemed so juvenile. As I passed back by the offices, the light-show team was coming out the door. Jake walked on, probably because he was going to be late to work as well, and ice cream was waiting to be scooped.
Whitney, Robyn, and Jasmine caught up with me. I guess we were all headed to the employee locker rooms.
“So what did he decide?” Whitney asked.
“Tsunami.”
“I figured.”
“He is so dreamy,” Jasmine said.
“I thought you were with Tanner,” I told her.
“Nope.”
She quickened her pace, going ahead of us.
“Why did you ask her to be on the team?” I asked Whitney.
“I didn’t. I didn’t know anyone working at slides so I asked them to just send someone. What’s the problem?”
“She’s the one who was kissing Tanner.”
“Oh, right. I’d forgotten. She’s not memorable.”
“She’s red-haired and way too bubbly. How can she not be memorable?” I asked.
“Sorry. I didn’t remember her. I guess I could replace her.”
“No, don’t do that,” I said. “I’m not totally mean.”
“You’re not mean at all,” Robyn said. “Wonder why she moved to slides.”
“I heard she had a problem counting change,” Whitney said.
“You sure do hear a lot,” I muttered.
“Hey, I work in the offices now. It’s gossip central.”
“Yeah, like what else have you heard?”
“Nothing I can repeat at this time. Later,” she said. “I’m going to talk to Charlotte about some of our ideas.”
She headed back to the offices. I looked at Robyn. “Does she not understand the friend code? That there’s a dome of silence around you, so you can tell your friends things that you aren’t supposed to and they won’t tell anyone else?”
“Do you tell her secrets?”
“No.”
“There you go.”
I didn’t like it when Robyn was so practical.
“I thought Michael was nice,” she said.
“Based on what?” I asked as I started walking back to the lockers. I really was going to need that tardy slip.
“Well, he looked nice. He has a nice smile. And his eyes. My gosh. I’ve never seen eyes like that. What are they? Gray?”
“More like silver,” I said.
“Is that what they put on his driver’s license?”
“I don’t know.” I didn’t even know if he had a driver’s license. How old was he anyway?
“I asked them to put chocolate on my restricted license, but they didn’t,” Robyn said.
I laughed. I hadn’t known that. Amazing what I was discovering that I didn’t know about Robyn. “Why would you do that?”
“Because brown sounded so boring. And you have such pretty blue eyes.”
What can I say? I do.
“So what do you think of this Fourth of July extravaganza?” Robyn asked.
“It seems pretty straightforward. I don’t know why we need a committee.”
“Because Whitney wants one.”
“But why?” I asked. “Michael didn’t really need a tour of the park. We walked to Tsunami and that was it. Decision made.”
/> Robyn looked around like someone who was about to do something she shouldn’t do and was afraid of getting caught. “I don’t think she has any friends.”
“You mean money can’t buy friendship?”
Robyn gave me a look that said she was a little tired of my attitude where Whitney was concerned. “We don’t know that she’s rich.”
I blinked in astonishment. “Of course she is. She has a chauffeur.”
“Okay. So she probably is. But like I said, I don’t think she has anyone to hang out with so she looks for reasons to do things that require other people.”
“Sad.” Really, I thought it was. Then an awful thought struck me. “Day after tomorrow? Day off? Is she hanging out with us?”
“Would you mind?”
Okay, what was I supposed to say to that? Sean had to work that day. Robyn and I were off. We hadn’t had any real time together since she started hanging out with my brother. No more spending time in my room gossiping. No more hanging out at the mall. Of course, the mall thing could be because we were working so we didn’t have a lot of time to shop.
But if I said I didn’t want Whitney to hang out with us, I’d look selfish wanting Robyn all to myself. And it wasn’t that. I just wanted to talk about how confused I was about guys all of a sudden. Why was Tanner talking to me again? Should I be interested in Michael? Or was he really a Romeo? More of a Romeo than Tanner anyway.
“I don’t mind.” I tried to sound bubbly, but bubbly had never been my thing.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
“Great. We’re going to have fun.”
“What are we doing?”
“I don’t know yet. But we’ll have a great time whatever we decide.”
That was the thing about Robyn. Since she’d started dating my brother, she was the eternal optimist.
* * *
While I started my day at the five-foot station, every twenty minutes we rotated. So I moved down to the station at the three-foot end of the pool, then I did a turn standing in the shallow end before moving to the station at the eight-foot mark. Then I’d take a break and start all over again. My side was the right side of the pool. Those doing the left side of the pool did the same sort of rotation. It was supposed to keep us alert. Because really and truly, watching other people having fun is boring.
That afternoon I was having a particularly difficult time staying alert. I was standing in the shallow end of the pool — which put me close to the sand-covered lounging deck. And sitting in a chair on the front row was Romeo.
He hadn’t gone home after our meeting. I guess he figured since he was here, he might as well play. His brothers showed up every now and then. So Romeo was probably babysitting.
And watching me. I could feel him watching me — even though my back was to him. I had a strong urge to spin around, blow my whistle, and tell him to cut it out. But that would make me look like a psycho because I couldn’t prove he was watching me.
The horn blew to warn that the waves were starting up. A lot of the smaller kids screeched and ran out of the pool, splashing water on me as they went by. I didn’t mind getting splashed. As a matter of fact, it felt pretty good.
I became aware of a shadow easing up beside mine in the rippling water. I cut my eyes to the side. Romeo. No surprise there.
“You ever get a day off so you can have fun?” he asked.
“We’re not supposed to talk,” I said.
“You were talking yesterday.”
I gave him an incredulous look. “Not while I was on duty.”
“Sure you did. When you told me that I couldn’t put Juliet on my shoulders.”
“I can yell at people. Don’t make me yell at you.” Just before I turned my attention back to the swimmers, I caught a glimpse of his grin. He had such a cute grin.
“Romeo! Hey!”
That got my attention. I looked over my shoulder. It was Jasmine. She was holding a large cup of ice cream.
“I’m on break. I brought you some ice cream,” she said.
He looked surprised. “You brought that for me?”
“I thought we could share. Come on.”
“Since she can talk and you can’t …” he said, his voice trailing off as he headed back to his lounge chair.
Since she was on break and I wasn’t …
Not that it mattered. I wasn’t going to flirt with him. He was kind of like a bee, flying from flower to flower. Only for him, the flower was whatever girl was available. He wasn’t a Michael. He really was a Romeo.
And Jasmine. How had she even known that Michael was still here? Did she have some sort of guy radar? And what was it with her going after guys who talked to me?
I didn’t think I knew her from school. Maybe she got bored easily. Maybe that was the real reason that she went from the souvenir shop to slides. I didn’t want to think about her feeding ice cream to Romeo. But when I glanced over my shoulder, I saw that she was doing exactly that. Then giggling as though she’d just told him a joke.
“Morgan, what are you doing?”
I jerked my head around. Trent was standing there, with his hands on his hips. I’d been a perfect employee for almost a month. And because of one little incident yesterday, he’d lost all faith in my abilities. It was annoying and I didn’t know how to regain his trust.
With his first two fingers, he pointed at his eyes, then he pointed out toward the pool. “That’s where you’re supposed to be looking.”
I swallowed hard. “I know.”
“Then do it.”
“I am.”
“Looking away, you miss seeing things.”
I knew what he was thinking. “I didn’t look away yesterday.”
Shaking his head, he walked away. I was mortified. I really, really hoped that Romeo didn’t see me getting into trouble. I wanted to look over my shoulder to see if he’d noticed. But I forced myself to keep my eyes on the swimmers.
I concentrated on the whistling breeze going over the roaring waves. The screams and laughter of the swimmers. The shrieks as kids threw sand at one another. When I did all that, I didn’t hear Jasmine’s light laughter or Romeo’s deep chuckle.
I wasn’t like Jasmine. When I laughed, people heard me. My mom said I had a joyful laugh, and I didn’t laugh loudly on purpose, it’s just that when I thought something was funny, I laughed first and then thought about what I sounded like later. I really hated that having Jasmine near was making me look at myself critically. So what if Tanner had kissed her instead of me? So what if Romeo was sharing ice cream with her?
So what? So what? So what?
I spun around and blew my whistle as loud as I could. Jasmine shrieked and jerked her arms and legs like a puppet that had all the wrong strings pulled. She dropped the cup of ice cream in the sand — - upside down.
I almost burst out laughing, but that would be so uncool.
“Sorry,” I said. “I saw kids running.”
“Well, duh, it’s a play area,” Jasmine said.
“But they aren’t supposed to run. They could trip and hurt themselves. We could get sued. It’s my responsibility to protect the swimmers, the guests, and the park.”
“And it is rule number one,” Romeo said as though he was conspiring with me. “I don’t understand how people cannot see that big board with all the rules.”
“Kids can’t read,” Jasmine said.
“Which is why I have to blow my whistle.”
“Whatever. You made me drop my ice cream. You owe me.”
I owed her? Yeah, I did but not for the ice cream.
I tapped my watch. “Shouldn’t you be back at your post?”
She stood up, patted Romeo on the shoulder, then leaned down and whispered something in his ear that made him grin.
I watched her start to walk away and turned my attention back to the pool. The waves were starting to die down. Pretty soon it’d be calm water again. Or as calm as it can be with a hundred and fift
y people jumping around in it.
“So what was up with the whistling?” Romeo asked as he came to stand beside me.
“Like I said. Saw kids running around.”
He walked past me into the water, then turned around so he was walking backward into the pool, facing me. “What’s your favorite song?”
I shrugged.
“Come on. You’ve gotta have a favorite song.”
“‘Our Song’ by Taylor Swift. What’s yours?”
“Not important.” He turned and dove into the water.
I wondered if he’d be here tomorrow and the day after that. I wondered if it would be weird to spend my day off at the place where I worked.
Probably.
Still, it was worth thinking about.
Before we’d left Paradise Falls the night before, Whitney had told her committee members that we’d have another meeting the next day and food would be provided. Sounded good to me. I didn’t have to mess with fixing my lunch.
What she didn’t say was that it was an experimental meal. It was based on the reason behind our committee. The Fourth of July. Red, white, and blue.
I could live with the red, white, and blue cotton candy. I didn’t mind the patriotic popcorn. I thought it was neat actually, with each fluffy piece being red, white, or blue.
But I drew the line at white buns with red ketchup and blue hot dogs. I didn’t want to think about the amount of dye that must have been injected into the hot dog to turn it blue.
Whitney’s committee members were sitting around the table in the conference room, staring at their “provided lunch” on plates in front of them as though they thought the hot dogs would bite. Michael wasn’t there. Our food selection didn’t have anything to do with the light show. I was wishing I wasn’t there either.
“Come on,” Whitney said. “Try it.”
I noticed that she wasn’t chomping down on hers. “You try it,” I said.
“I’m a vegetarian.”
I laughed. “Since when?”
“Since I was twelve.”
I tried to remember if I’d ever seen her eat any meat. Couldn’t remember ever seeing her eat anything, actually.
“I think I’ll barf if I try to eat it,” Jasmine said.
I never expected to agree with Jasmine, the guy-stealer. Because she had red hair, she had a lot of freckles but they were small and disgustingly cute. Guys probably liked them. She was slender. She could probably eat sweets on non-holidays.
